


What Is Love

by HK44



Series: The Chef, the Doctor and the Lawyer [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Love, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 13:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10991529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: Gaara snorted while Sakura laughed. Despite Naruto’s annoyance, the air was still calm and breathable. A slight warmth pitched through it. He fingered the bottom of his shirt, thinking.Was this love?





	What Is Love

**Author's Note:**

> My friend [Blair](http://yuuikkuma.tumblr.com/) is a Naruto nerd and she somehow tricked me into rewatching Naruto through excessive posting of Nart and Nart related media and sending me shiz of Gaara and Sakura, the only two I ever loved, and _because_ my brain is evidently hard-wired for polyamory (and rarepair hell), things happened.
> 
> Please note! I have only (re) watched the Chunin Exam arc and the one that followed right after it and even then I skipped a whole bunch of whatever bored me. I remember very little of Part 2 (which I never finished) except for the fact that Sakura got more bad-ass and Gaara got somewhat softer. And also that cigarette guy died or something. Either way, this an AU so characters are bound to be _slightly_ different than canon.

Licking his lips and trying to figure out how to phrase it in a way that didn’t make him _cry_ , Gaara clasped both hands gently and said, “See, the problem is, you fall in love with everyone you meet.” He dropped both hands to the edge of the table. “So I don’t know how seriously I’m supposed to take that.”

“What? No, I don’t!” Naruto gestured vaguely at their unflinching gazes. “I _don’t_ do that!”

Gaara stared at him for a slow second before turning to look at Sakura. Her jaw rested on the flat of her palm, lips upturned in a loose and knowing smile. He turned back to Naruto. “Well… You do.”

Naruto sputtered in offense. “Wha-”

“We knew each other for less than two seconds and you said I was the light of your life and that you _loved_  me,” Sakura pointed out. She shifted up and stretched, groaning as a crack knocked out of her back. “And then you tried to fight Ino.”

He pointed a finger at her. “That’s not fair, I was drunk and you were hot.” He swung his hand at Gaara. “Also, I _do_  love you.” He pointed back at Sakura. “And you.”

“We’ve been dating for less than two months,” Gaara noted.

Naruto’s hand swung back in Gaara’s direction. “So?”

“That’s not… enough _time_.”

“It is!”

Gaara glanced at Sakura, who was amused with the whole ordeal if her sadistic grin was anything to go by. She raised an eyebrow and he gave up, turning back to Naruto. “It’s not enough for _me_.”

Naruto crossed his arms. The bleed of his orange shirt, so bright and vibrant, struck out in the dull glow of the tiny kitchen. “I wasn’t saying it for you to say it _back_. I was saying it so you’d _know._ ”

Exhausted, Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s the same thing, Naruto.” His arm dropped with a bang to the table and he slipped back in his chair, needing to find some kind of control outside the tensing situation. He rocked to the chair’s back legs and held tight to the table’s edge. His head locked back, eyes to the ceiling. He exhaled slowly. “That’s what I _meant_.”

Naruto grit his teeth. “I don’t-” He crossed his arms tighter around his chest. “What are you talking about?”

“Love!” Gaara’s chair slammed back down on all four legs, wobbling. He gripped the table’s edge. Swiftly, Sakura slid a hand down his back. He tried to relax into the touch. “You can’t-” He pressed his hands to side of his head. “Two months isn’t enough time to say _that_ and _mean it_.”

Ferocity snarled in Naruto’s voice. “ _But it_ -”

“Naruto!” Sakura barked and he went silent immediately. Even the sound of unrelenting static that bubbled in the air on end seemed to vanish just at her tone. She turned to Gaara, slid a hand over his shoulder and squeezed softly. Her voice was gentle. “Sweetheart?”

Gaara recoiled away from her hand. It wasn’t intentional, never was. But he needed… _space_. He squeezed his hands into tight fists. His nails dug into the fleshy underside, into his palm. It burned. He squeezed tighter until the tension in his muscles outweighed the pain and everything numbed over.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he could hear someone calling him _Shukaku_.

He snapped back into himself. Exhaled sharply through his nose. “I don’t-” He pressed his hands into his thighs and worked his jaw out twice, muscles tensing. He began again. “I don’t _understand…_ what it is.”

Naruto frowned. Embarrassed, Gaara looked away. Love was… weird. People special to you. Things important to you.

And he didn’t _get it_.

Temari. Kankuro. They were important in some way, he supposed. They cared for him and should they have died during any mission, he’d certainly be _sad_  but… was that love? Did he _love_  them?

Did he love anything?

Did he even _like_  anything?

He swallowed. “It doesn’t…”

The words wouldn’t come. They wouldn’t form in his mind and he trailed off, cutting his eyes at the ceiling and wondering how stupid it would be if he punched them both and ran away.

It’d certainly would’ve been effective, if anything else.

“I get it,” Sakura said, slowly. She tucked a sproing of hair behind his ear. “It doesn’t make sense.” Her fingers curved over his jaw, softly tickling. “It doesn’t have to, you know.”

He eyed her reproachfully. “I don’t think you understand.”

“I do!” she insisted. She tugged on his earlobe pleasantly. “You spent the better part of your life repressing the hell out of your emotions, right? Of course, you don’t get love, right now.”

Naruto slammed his hands down on the table. “We can teach you!” He ignored the knife Gaara had pointed just under his throat. “It’ll be easy!”

Sitting back in his chair, Gaara shook his head. “I don’t agree.”

“Where the hell did you get that?” Sakura asked, nodding at the knife.

He pressed his head to her shoulder. “I don’t know,” he muttered, letting her take it from him. For a brief moment, he panicked then relaxed slow and exhaled gently, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She was a calm energy. Like the ocean lapping against the sandy shores of a beach. And like the ocean, she could easily become a raging menace. But for the most part, she was warm. Soothingly soft.

Slowly, Sakura threaded her fingers through his hair. He blinked his eyes open for a swift second then squeezed them shut. “Is this love?”

“Yes,” Naruto said immediately, snapping his fingers.

“Naruto,” Sakura groaned, dropping her hand to Gaara’s back and pinching the bridge of her nose with the other. After a second, she went back to smoothing down his hair again. “Ignore him,” she sighed. “Everything is love to him.”

“Everything is not love to me,” Naruto huffed.

“I gave you the rest of a donut I didn’t want, which was _extremely_  stale by the time I gave it to you,” Sakura started, her finger pointing vigourously at him, “and three days later, Choji called me to ask me to get you to _shut up_  about it.”

“It was a good donut!”

“It was not!” She gestured erratically around the room, clipping Gaara’s face with her elbow. “The only reason I ate it was because I’d been studying for seven hours and hadn’t eaten anything! I don’t even remember where it came from!”

“You ate a mysterious donut?” Gaara mumbled.

“It was out of hunger and if you judge me, I’ll slap you,” she threatened, poking him in the side.

Laughter bubbled deep into his chest. Despite himself, he giggled quietly and squirmed out of her way when she tried to poke him again, slipping straight off the chair and collapsing to the floor.

Smiling lazily, he splayed his hands over his stomach and stared at the ceiling. Easy, Sakura slid down next to him. Her hand hovered over his. Exhaling slow, he overturned it and let her grasp his hand. She squeezed it gently and looked at the ceiling.

Chest laid out on the table and eyes frowning at them, Naruto said, “So we’re floor people now?”

“You’ve always been a floor person,” Gaara muttered.

He bared his teeth as he grinned wide to Naruto’s offended squawks. Sakura laughed with him. He pressed a quick kiss to the back of her hand. She smiled and squeezed his hand again. The pressure was soothing.

Grunting loud and obnoxiously as per his norm, Naruto splayed out on his stomach beside Gaara. “You both suck.”

“Very classy wording, Mr. Lawyer,” Sakura teased, rolling into Gaara’s side so she could throw her leg over his waist and nudge Naruto in his thigh.

He swatted at her foot before throwing an arm over Gaara’s chest. He cuddled into him, sighing. “It’s important to make your own definition of what love is,” he said. “Like family. Friends. What constitutes a _pet.”_

 _“_ A slug _is_ a pet,” Sakura growled, kicking his thigh again.

Wide-eyed, Naruto jabbed his finger at her. “It is _not._ ” She stuck her tongue out at him. He shook his head, brushing hair out of his eyes. “Okay. Where was I?”

“Explaining how your definition of love is everything,” Gaara said.

Naruto hit his chest and started to get up. “You know what? Fuck all of you.”

“Both would’ve worked better.”

“Well-” He spluttered for half a second then waggled his hands aggravated at them. “Shut up.”

“Nice argument.” Sakura grinned viciously. “Mr. Lawyer.”

“I’m breaking up with both of you!” Naruto stormed off to the bedroom. “That’s it! No more!”

Gaara snorted while Sakura laughed. Despite Naruto’s annoyance, the air was still calm and breathable. A slight warmth pitched through it. He fingered the bottom of his shirt, thinking.

Was this love?

“He’s right,” Sakura said softly after a few seconds.

“Damn right I am!”

She rolled her eyes. Slow, she pushed herself up, grunting all the while. “Love is hard to explain and it’s hard to define. You have to decide what it is to you.” She paused for a second. “In _legal_  terms, of course.”

Gaara hummed in understanding. She brushed the back of her hand over his bangs.

“But. If you never figure it out, it’s not bad.” She booped his nose. “We’ll still like you.” She smiled. “Promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope it was mildly decent! :)
> 
> [Tumblr](http://happyk44.tumblr.com/post/161031254067/what-is-probably-a-crack-ficlet-based-off-this) || [Insta](https://www.instagram.com/hk44_art/)


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